1. science

Winter 2015
Amphibian monitoring in Yellowstone National Park
Montana passes 35 years as an NSF EPSCoR state
Students support NPS with
ecological inventorying
Did you know? Montana was one of the
original five EPSCoR states when the program
was established by the National Science
Foundation in 1979 to help build science and
technology infrastructure in the states that, at
that time, received the least federal research
and development funding. The goal was to
give broader geographic distribution of federal
funding, which had been concentrated in a
relatively few number of states. The experiment
was a huge success, and Montana has received
EPSCoR funding ever since. The program, which
was centered at MSU-Bozeman, has grown to
include all Montana University System four-year
institutions and tribal colleges. The current
research focus for NSF EPSCoR Track 1 funding is
on climate and ecosystem linkages from microbes
to landscapes.
by Kristen Legg
The following was written by
Dr. Bob Swenson, emeritus vice
president for research at Montana
State University. This account
is, in Dr. Swenson’s words—a
“memory, not a history.” Swenson
was at MSU at this critical
juncture, and we appreciate this documentation.
A second installment will appear in the Spring
2015 issue.
THE ORIGINS OF NSF EPSCOR
In 1978 Congress authorized the “Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive
Research” (EPSCoR) in the National Science
Foundation, seeking to disrupt a dichotomy
between the “haves” and the “have-not”
states, in terms of federal research and
development funds.
NSF soon identified the “least competitive”
seven states, based on a composite formula
that measured federal R&D dollars on a
per capita and per scientist basis. Montana
received a planning grant and was
one of five states to
win a $3M EPSCoR
Implementation Grant.
Although excellent
faculty were in the university system at that
time, major changes
were needed to meet
NSF’s requirements in
order to provide time,
facilities, instrumentation, and infrastructure
for research, and to
provide graduate student support. MSU’s
Research Park was established at that time.
Gary Strobel, an
original leader of
Montana's fledgling
EPSCoR project, is still
an active researcher
and faculty member
on the Montana State
University campus.
Montana’s original proposal, Montanans
On a New Track for Science (MONTS), was
lead by Gary Strobel and was run as a “mini
NSF.” Faculty wrote proposal for MONTS
funding, which were reviewed by a state-wide
committee. Mentors, peer reviewers and
guest speakers were all part of this growing
program.
Every NSF dollar required a state match,
which required substantial dialog among
university personnel, the Governor’s Office,
the Legislature, and the private sector. MSU
President Bill Tietz and Vice President John
Jutila played key roles in acquiring these
match dollars to hire new faculty and purchase major equipment. Additionally, a state
science committee was formed; its role was
continued on back page
Since 2012, six student interns from the
Montana Institute on Ecosystems have
teamed up with the Greater Yellowstone
Inventory and Monitoring Network of the
National Park Service. Interns collect field
data from a sample of whitebark pine trees
spread across nine million acres of federal
land, systematically survey wetlands in
Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks
for evidence of frog habitat, and help in the
office to describe and manage scientific
data and publications. In 2000 the National Park Service established 32 networks
of parks across the country to repeatedly
collect scientific data on specific natural resources over a long period of time. Results
from this long-term monitoring help park
managers and the public track the health
of these vital natural resources, which
in turn supports science-based management of national parks. In collaboration
with federal, academic and other partners,
the Greater Yellowstone Network collects
information on amphibians and wetlands;
grass and shrub vegetation; rivers, streams
and springs; and whitebark pine trees in
and around Grand Teton and Yellowstone
National Parks and in Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. We also use climate
data to better understand whether and
how any changes detected from long-term
continued on back page
At top: Bryan Cossairt (center with cowboy
hat), Institute on Ecosystems 2013 summer
intern, assisting with amphibian monitoring in
Yellowstone National park (2013, NPS Photo).
PEOPLE AND EVENTS
UPCOMING EVENTS
January – April 2015. Rough Cut Science. Join us
each Wednesday at noon MST on the MSU
campus or online to hear talks from IoE faculty
and affiliates. IoE Rough Cut Science Series
talks are designed to showcase and connect
NSF EPSCoR and IoE researchers and affiliates
through informal talks and open discussion.
Live talks are Webcast at http://montana.
adobeconnect.com/roughcutscience/ An archive
of past talks is at http://montanaioe.org/outreach
March 26-27. Montana NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 AllHands Meeting. Missoula, Montana
March 28. NanoDays – Missoula (spectrUM Discovery
Area). This science outreach program for youth
and adults is part of the NSF-funded Nanoscale
Informal Science Education Network.
April 7 / April 14. Distinguished Visiting Scholar.
Jodi Hilty from the Wildlife Conservation Society
will talk April 7 at MSU and April 14 at UM.
The title of Dr. Hilty’s talk is “On the Road to
Recovery: Grizzly bears, wolverine, and jaguar.”
April 13. NanoDays / MicroDays - Bozeman This
science outreach program for youth and adults
is part of the NSF-funded Nanoscale Informal
Science Education Network. http://eu.montana.
edu/nanodays
Montana EPSCoR’s Track I focus is on understanding the effects of climate change on sustaining
healthy ecosystems and economic growth. The
Institute on Ecosystems (IoE) is a statewide Institute based at the flagship research universities
through which current Montana EPSCoR activities
are implemented.
Montana EPSCoR
PO Box 173142
Bozeman, MT 59717-3142
406-994-7658
mus-epscor@montana.edu
facebook.com/MontanaEPSCoR
Twitter.com/MontanaEPSCoR
Youtube.com/MontanaEPSCoR
EPSCoR webpage: mtnsfepscor.org
IoE webpage: Montanaioe.org
This material is based on work supported by the
National Science Foundation under Grant EPS1101342. Any opinions, findings and conclusions
or recommendations expressed in this material are
those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect
the views of the National Science Foundation.
PEOPLE & EVENTS IN THE IOE
All-hands meeting will highlight accomplishments, set future course
The Montana EPSCoR RII Track-1 All-Hands
Meeting set for March 26-27 at the University of Montana will bring researchers, staff
and students together for updates, discussion and idea generation on the accomplishments, status and future of our EPSCoR-supported research projects and the Montana
Institute on Ecosystems.
Participants include Denise Barnes, section
head of NSF EPSCoR, who will join us from
the national NSF offices in Washington, D.C.,
as well as Bob Coyne, our new program officer,
an associate professor from the J. Craig
Venter Institute, and Julia Melkers, our external
evaluator who is based at Georgia Tech.
The meeting is designed with opportunities
for EPSCoR/IoE participants to share ideas
and accomplishments and to build collaborations for future work. This is also an excellent
chance to meet new faculty hires and learn
how they are bringing their expertise to the
overall research objectives.
The two-day meeting includes information
about Education-Outreach-Diversity activities
and the IoE’s growing social science capacity and opportunities, including the SocialEcological Systems Initiative and MtnSEON
(see back page). We will also hear about
initial work related to the development of a
statewide climate assessment—a goal set
out in our original EPSCoR proposal and one
that has the potential to build partnerships
with the U.S. Global Change Program, Montana agricultural organizations and NGOs,
and partners across the state and nation.
Overall, the meeting will focus on how our
existing science contributes to integrated
project goals; the intellectual significance;
what’s needed for years 5-6 of the grant;
and how is our work advancing science for
the next decade.
EPSCoR Director Callaway named regents professor
Montana NSF EPSCoR
director and University of Montana biology
Professor Ragan “Ray”
Callaway was recently
named a UM Regents
Professor of Ecology,
the top rank awarded
to faculty members in
the Montana University System. Regents
Professors must demonstrate unusual
excellence in instruction, scholarship
and service, as well as distinctive impact
through their work. The rank is awarded by
the Board of Regents upon the recommendation of the University president.
Callaway was selected for a 2014 Reuters’
list titled “The World’s Most Influential
Scientific Minds” for publishing the greatest number of highly cited papers between
2002 and 2012.“With exceptional work in
all three areas of responsibility – teaching,
research and service – Professor Callaway
has become a model of productivity and
impact,” UM President Royce Engstrom
said. “Rare are those faculty members
who establish internationally renowned
research programs and at the same time
care deeply about students at all levels,
and further, contribute to the well-being
of their institution and profession through
service. Ray is such a person.”
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He studies how plants function together
in communities and ecosystems, and his
research has taken him around the world.
Callaway tracked knapweed back to its
native range in Central Europe, researching how other plants in that ecosystem
naturally keep knapweed in check.
He also has sought out low-lying cushion
plants on mountaintops from Missoula to
Alaska, the Andes, Europe and New Zealand, studying how plants facilitate survival
among one another and form communities
in some of the harshest environments on
Earth.
Callaway earned his doctorate from the
University of California, Santa Barbara,
in 1990. After a postdoctoral fellowship at UC Santa Barbara, he had a joint
faculty appointment with the University
of Illinois and Duke University. He joined
UM as an assistant professor in 1993
and earned the rank of full professor in
2002. Students working in Callaway’s lab
range from undergraduates to postdoctoral
researchers and include scientists from
around the world. They study topics ranging from resource competition to ecological
changes brought about by herbivores and
soil microbes. He has served as Montana’s
NSF EPSCoR director since 2013.
--Source: UM News
RESEARCH AND OUTREACH
ScienceMontana launches as portal to STEM resources
Montana NSF EPSCoR has launched
ScienceMontana, an online database of
educational resources covering science,
technology, engineering and mathematics
(STEM) topics. The database features resources
created in Montana and about Montana, as
well as resources relevant to the northern
Rockies. The site was developed by Montana
EPSCoR’s outreach partner MSU Extended
University, and many of the resources relate
to science conducted under current and past
EPSCoR grants, including Montana Institute on
Ecosystems research on wildfires, biodiversity,
climate and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
The state’s rare natural resources – Yellowstone and Glacier national parks, massive
free-flowing river systems and large fossil beds
– represent unique ecosystems that draw interest from visitors, students and scientists from
around the world. While much of the world
holds a fascination with Montana’s natural
resources, Montanans themselves are often
unaware of the research happening in their
backyard. ScienceMontana seeks to connect
Montanans to the science happening in our
state.
Resources include lesson plans, videos,
hands-on activities and other materials in
earth science, life science, physical science and space science. The database also
includes multi-cultural STEM lesson plans
created by Native American teachers.
Visitors can browse by topic or keyword, such
as climate, water, ecosystem, nano, astronomy
and more. New resources will be uploaded
periodically, and Montana organizations and
educators as well as other EPSCoR states are
encouraged to submit resources for inclusion.
Access STEM resources made IN Montana
and ABOUT about Montana at
www.sciencemontana.org
Hu and Jencso: UM–MSU Collaboration Thrives
One goal of the Montana NSF ESPCoR
Track 1 research project is to increase
multi-institutional research collaboration.
Through creation of the statewide Institute
on Ecosystems and innovative programs to
engage faculty across disciplines, departments, and institutions, such as the Rough
Cut Science Series, the Mentoring Program
for Interdisciplinary Initiatives (PI2), the
Science Summit, and the popular affiliate
program, many multi-institutional research
collaborations have been established.
One example of collaborative success
involves two early career faculty, Dr. Jia Hu
at Montana State University and Dr. Kelsey
Jencso at the University of Montana. Hu,
a plant ecophysiologist, was an EPSCoRsupported hire and holds a joint appointment with MSU’s Ecology Department and
the IoE. Jencso, a watershed hydrologist
and climate scientist, was hired to lead
the Montana Climate Office. Through the
IoE, Hu and Jencso met and hatched an
idea for a research partnership. With seed
funding from the IoE and NSF ESPCoR
Track-1, they started working together at
the Lubrecht Experimental Forest to understand how declining winter snowpack and
increased deposition of nitrogen affect the
productivity of forests in the western U.S.
In recent decades winter snowpack has
declined, while anthropogenic nitrogen
deposition has increased. Particularly in
our complex mountain landscapes, these
changes impact hydrology and geochem-
istry of snow-dominated montane forests
in complex ways. Hu and Jencso want to
understand how these factors combine
to influence forest productivity. They
established research sites with extensive
sensor networks to collect necessary data.
Based on initial data collection, they began
writing proposals for additional funding.
Montana NSF EPSCoR Director Ray Callaway puts this type of seed funding into
perspective: “Leverage, leverage, leverage.
EPSCoR seeds new ideas that can be competitive for new research grants, building
Montana’s research enterprise.”
The first success of this partnership was a
grant from USDA -- also including co-PI Dr.
Yuriko Yano – that funds expansion of their
interdisciplinary study. They will examine the topographic controls on nitrogen
availability, tree nitrogen uptake, and
nitrogen loss from the ecosystem within a
coniferous forest, experiencing relatively
low nitogen deposition rates. Their project
includes field observations and controlled
pot experiments. In the field component,
they are examining topographical controls
on snowpack dynamics, which affect the
temporal synchrony between nitrogen availability and tree nitrogen demand. They are
measuring seasonal nitrogen availability,
tree nitrogen uptake rates, nitrogen use
efficiency and tree growth rates in different species. In the pot experiment, they
are simulating different snowpack levels
and determining differences in nitrogen
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Students Justin Martin and Nate Looker
establish a meteorological station in the
Lubrecht Experimental Forest.
uptake kinetics by different species. This
work will provide a baseline understanding of topographical and seasonal controls
on nitrogen availability, as well as provide
a physiological understanding of how
water and N control forest productivity. In
more simple terms, their work will help to
sustainably manage agroecosystems in
response to changing environmental conditions. All three researchers are also very
active in and committed to public outreach
and mentoring university students.
More proposals are pending and so far the
feedback looks promising for more grant
success. A growing team of undergraduate
and graduate students are working on the
project. Unlike the annual Cat-Griz football
game where one team celebrates victory
on the field, this MSU and UM project is a
win-win. Or in the “one Montana” idea of
the IoE, it’s a win for Montana.
RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS
MtnSEON network promotes SES
The Mountain Social Ecological Observatory Network (MtnSEON) is a research
network with the goal of improving social
and ecological resilience and sustainability for complex mountain landscapes
in the Northern Rockies region and
neighboring areas. Funded by the NSF
Research Coordination Network program,
MtnSEON emphasizes social-ecological
systems (SES) approaches, bringing
together social and ecological scientists
to collaboratively understand these
coupled human-natural systems. Led by
an Jim Gosz at the University of Idaho and
an executive committee that includes
Montana EPSCoR Director Ray Callaway,
MtnSEON facilitates, coordinates,
integrates and synthesizes existing
research; designs new research and
education projects; and creates partnerships. Nine working groups cover an
impressive range of topics, from large
carnivores to riverscapes.
One of the growing partnerships is the
Social Ecological Systems Training and Education Program. SESTEP aims to provide
professional certification and graduatelevel accreditation of “SES (socialecological systems) in practice” for land
and natural resource practitioners,
managers, and decision-makers. The
10-week program will include two weeks
of in-person training and eight weeks
of virtual course work. Participants will
learn SES theory, communication and
collaboration skills of working across
disciplines, regulatory considerations,
and a process to identify and analyze
the SES system in which they work. The
first SESTEP prototype is under development at the University of Montana.
MtnSEON is an ideal partner for the IoE,
which has established SES science as
a priority for research and education
through new social science faculty hires
and statewide programs such as the IoE
SES Initiative. The IoE will continue to
work with MtnSEON to address a fundamental question: How can we reduce
the vulnerability, improve resilience, and
support sustainability of natural and
human systems in complex mountain
landscapes? Answering that question will
require new collaborative research and
education that crosses a diverse spectrum of disciplines and perspectives.
NSF EPSCoR in Montana (cont. from p. 1)
to identify and support high priority research
and technology.
After a decade of support provided by MONTS,
the NSF program also evolved, which led to a
MONTS II program with new expectations. The
university and the Legislature collaborated,
and, in 1989, two highly significant bills were
passed: HB 683 provided “Seed Capital” for
research over 5 years of $7.5 million to be
managed by the state science committee—the
Montana Science and Technology Alliance
(MSTA); and HB 233 returned 100% of IDCs
(indirect costs for grants) to campus.
When Swenson became MSU’s Vice President
for Research in 1990, he stated that the “faculty
were excited about and committed to the rapid
growth of research opportunities due to a “can
do” spirit on campus.” Swenson wrote to faculty
“…I have been overwhelmed … by the spirit and
quality of the faculty … and the resulting vitality.”
The 90’s saw a substantial increase in funding for research, including a commitment and
capacity to hire excellent new faculty.
In the 1990s the NSF program added new
dimensions with increased funding: emphasis
on Science-Technology-Engineering-and Math
(STEM) education and on technology transfer
and economic development. Match dollars
were available from the state.
Meanwhile, in the early 1990s, EPSCoR and
EPSCoR- like programs were developed at
NASA, NIH, DoD, USDA, DoE, and EPA. Using
the very successful MONTS model created for
NSF, MSU established similar models for each
of the six new EPSCoR programs. By the end of
the 90s, Montana was second only to Louisiana in winning EPSCoR awards.
Meanwhile, Congress changed the intellectual
property (IP) rights policy for research funded
by federal agencies. Enacted in 1980 and
amended in 1984 and 1986, the Bayh-Dole
Act created a uniform policy among all federal
agencies that gave the IP rights funded by
those agencies to the universities. By the early
90s NSF and other agencies were encouraging/requiring universities to participate in
technology transfer activities. As a result, MSU
created two new programs in 1993: The IPATNT
office (Intellectual Property Administration and
Technology Transfer office) focused on campus
services for inventors, assisting in patenting
decisions, and advertising IP options for licensing, and the CERTT center (Center for Economic
Renewal and Technology Transfer Center) focused mainly on off-campus services to license
and develop campus IP and was located in the
Tech Park.
The legacies of each of these continue today
as The Technology Transfer Office and TechLink
in the Research Park.
In Part II of this article (Spring 2015), read about
three major impact stories, a continuing history of
NSF EPSCoR support in Montana, the legacy of this
program throughout the state, and the current state
of NSF EPSCoR-supported research, including the
Montana Institute on Ecosystems.
Students assist NPS with monitoring projects (cont. from p. 1)
monitoring relate to climate measurements like
temperature and precipitation.
Cooperation between the IoE and the Greater
Yellowstone Network provides a tremendous opportunity for interns to gain practical experience
conducting scientific work for the NPS. In turn
we benefit directly from the assistance interns
provide, and we are energized and inspired
by the curiosity, enthusiasm, and work ethic
that interns bring to our program. Motivated
interns help us continually explore new ways
to talk about and share our work – work that is
meaningful to those involved no matter where
their educational and career paths lead them.
We look forward to teaming up with interns into
the future. Learn more at http://science.nature.
nps.gov/im/units/gryn/index.cfm
At right: Intern Suzanne Stevenson records data as
part of the interagency whitebark pine long-term
monitoring program (2014, NPS Photo)
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